Some  Relations  of  Religious 
Education  and  Secular 
Education 


ELMER  ELLSWORTH  BROWN,  Ph.  D. 

United  States  Commissioner  ol  Education 


1*$' 


SOME  RELATIONS  OF*  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 
AND  SECULAR  EDUCATION 

ELMER  ELLSWORTH  BROWN,  Ph.  D. 

UNITED  STATES  COMMISSIONER  OF  EDUCATION 


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SOME  RELATIONS  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 
AND  SECULAR  EDUCATION* 

ELMER  ELLSWORTH  BROWN,  Ph.  D. 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Education 

Religious  education  cannot  permanently  employ  methods  which 
are  out  of  harmony  with  the  methods  of  secular  education.  Those 
methods  may  differ  with  the  different  subjects  to  which  they  are 
applied ; but  they  cannot  permanently  contradict  each  other.  The 
one  will  gradually  assimilate  the  other.  And  the  one  that  will 
assimilate  the  other,  in  any  age,  is  the  one  that,  in  that  age,  has 
the  wider  hold  on  the  convictions  of  men. 

The  relation  of  these  two,  each  to  each,  varies  and  must  vary 
from  age  to  age.  In  the  medieval  period,  it  was  institutional  re- 
ligion that  exercised  that  wider  sway,  and  secular  education,  if 
such  it  could  be  called,  departed  only  occasionally  or  furtively 
from  the  ways  of  religious  education.  Now  it  is  natural  science 
that  rules  the  minds  of  men.  A thousand  evidences  to  the  con- 
trary may  be  cited,  but  I believe  the  broad  generalization  will 
still  hold  true.  Science  rules  the  thoughts  of  men,  and  modern 
education  is  allied  with  modern  science.  It  is  this  type  of  educa- 
tion that  is  dominant  to-day,  and  we  may  confidently  expect  that 
in  this  age  it  will  mold  religious  education  to  its  standards  and 
its  processes. 

The  march  of  education,  having  this  scientific  and  secular 
character,  is  one  of  the  mightiest  spectacles  of  our  modern  world. 
It  is  the  central  and  unifying  fact  of  modern  civilization.  The 
religion  of  this  age  is  cleft  by  innumerable  differences  of  faith 
and  polity ; that  is,  for  the  time  being,  it  is  normally  and  neces- 
sarily sectarian.  There  are  seeming  exceptions  but  they  will  not 
disprove  the  rule.  The  science  of  this  age  is  the  same  science  all 

*A  paper  read  at  the  Conference  of  the  R.  E.  A.,  held  in  conjunction  with  the  N.  E.  A., 
at  Los  Angeles,  California,  July  10th,  1907. 


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over  the  world.  And  modern  education,  overpassing  partisan  and 
sectarian  bounds,  overpassing  even  local,  national,  and  racial 
bounds,  is  fast  coming  to  be  the  same  throughout  the  world,  and 
to  constitute  one  dominant,  world-wide,  human  interest.  Der 
Glaube  trennt  die  V olker,  die  Wissenschaft  vereinigt  sie. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  this  age  of  sectarianism  has  a part  of 
its  own  to  play  in  the  religious  history  of  the  nations.  If  it  is  a 
peculiarly  unstable  and  transitional  stage  in  the  life  of  the  Church, 
it  may  be  no  less  important  to  the  rounding  out  of  that  life  into 
its  fulness  than  any  other  stage  through  which  the  Church  has 
past.  But  so  long  as  religion  is  predominantly  sectarian,  it  may 
not  expect  to  regain  its  ascendency  over  the  institutions  and  the 
methods  of  education.  Universal  education  gravitates  toward 
universal  knowledge  and  toward  universally  recognized  forms  of 
thought.  The  partial  and  unprevailing  view  of  any  party  or  sect 
is  not  at  home  in  public  schools,  even  though  it  be  a view  which 
shall  eventually  lead  the  world.  Religion  in  its  modern  relations, 
sectarian  religion,  is  a breeder  of  disturbance  in  those  national 
systems  of  education  in  which  it  now  holds  a place  through  favor 
of  a tradition  all  unconsciously  outgrown.  Disturbance  is  often 
wholesome,  but  not  disturbance  of  this  kind ; for  it  is  full  of  bitter- 
ness, and  often  it  appeals  to  simple  prejudice.  I doubt  not  such 
disturbance  will  continue,  working  some  little  good  and  any 
amount  of  harm,  till  the  tradition  which  sustained  such  teaching 
among  those  peoples  shall  be  cast  aside.  Where  the  tradition  has 
already  past  away  or  where  it  has  never  become  established,  the 
teaching  of  any  system  of  religious  doctrine  is  to  be  steadily  ex- 
cluded from  public  and  common  schools.  Formal  instruction  in 
religion  will  be  out  of  place  in  public  schools  wherever  and  so 
long  as  religion  is  sectarian,  wherever  and  so  long  as  the  method 
of  religious  teaching  is  greatly  at  variance  with  the  methods  of 
secular  education. 

And  will  the  time  ever  come  when  these  limitations  will  no 
longer  prevail  ? I am  not  a prophet,  but  I have  no  doubt  that  such 
a time  will  come — not  in  your  day  and  mine,  but  in  the  course  of 
generations  or  of  centuries.  The  topmost  crest  of  the  sectarian 
wave  in  our  religious  history  would  seem  already  to  be  past.  It 
is  a wave  centuries  long  and  it  may  be  ages  long,  but  it  is  a reced- 


ing  wave.  Men  still  emphasize  their  religious  differences ; but 
already  there  is  notable  gain  in  the  emphasis  of  religious  agree- 
ment. It  is  a change  that  points  toward  a day  when  sectarian 
distinctions  shall  be  decisively  subordinated  to  religious  affirma- 
tions as  wide  as  undegenerate  mankind.  The  differences  will 
not  disappear,  and  agreement  will  not  be  attained  by  the  mere 
cancellation  of  differences.  But  the  differences  will,  I think,  be- 
come subordinate  and  tributary.  And,  by  ways  that  none  but  a 
prophet  can  foresee,  by  revivals  of  religious  thought  and  power 
such  as  the  world  has  not  yet  known,  the  spirit  of  man  will  make 
its  way  to  new  convictions  of  religious  verity,  and  they  will  be 
wider  and  deeper  than  the  unities  of  the  past. 

We  cannot  doubt  it,  for  we  believe  that  religion  as  well  as) 
science  stands  for  a permanent  need  of  the  human  soul.  As  long  , 
as  our  temporal  incompleteness  brings  its  manifold  strain  upon 
the  human  heart,  so  long  we  shall  feel  ourselves  stricken  with 
need  of  some  eternal  perfectness.  And  the  religion  which  answers  , 
to  this  need  will  be  either  the  conscious  and  dominant  interest  of 
our  lives  or  the  large  background  of  our  lives ; unless  it  be  in 
occasional  conditions  of  disease,  sporadic  or  epidemic,  where  for 
a time  the  sense  for  religion  may  seem  to  be  altogether  lost — yet 
only  for  a time. 

In  education  and  religion,  as  in  all  things  else,  no  age  is  final 
and  complete,  but  every  age  must  do  its  part  in  preparation  for 
the  next,  must  contribute  its  part  to  the  whole  of  human  history. 
But  if  the  conditions  of  this  age  are  not  permanent,  they  are 
permanent  and  imperative  for  this  age.  Let  us  now  look  a little 
further  into  the  relations  of  education  and  religion  in  this  age, 
viewing  these  relations  as  a stage  in  the  long  continued  develop- 
ment of  such  relations — a process  that  has  run  through  ages 
that  have  been  and  must  run  through  the  ages  to  come — yet  as 
having  a certain  immediate  finality  for  the  times  in  which  we  live. 

So  far  as  modern  education  is  concerned,  we  see  that  it  is 
allied  not  only  with  modern  science  but  with  democracy.  Even 
in  monarchical  lands  this  is  true,  in  subtle  ways  that  are  very  wide 
in  their  reach.  In  our  own  land  the  alliance  between  education 
and  democracy  is  open  and  absolute.  Our  secular  education,  as 
both  democratic  and  scientific,  finds  its  greatest  elevation,  it  makes 


its  warmest  claim  to  the  devotion  of  men,  on  the  moral  plane. 
Democratic  education  seeks  the  good  of  every  man  because  he  is 
man,  and  so  reaches  its  high  moral  conception  of  social  service. 
Scientific  education  teaches  men  to  follow  truth  forTheTsake  of 
truth,  in  the  full  conviction  that  human  interests  and  clear  truth 
must  in  the  end  be  one.  In  its  pure  devotion  to  truth,  natural 
science  is  moral,  unswervingly  moral.  The  best  that  education 
draws  from  the  scientific  alliance  is  not  even  the  perfected  method 
which  science  has  to  teach,  but  its  moral  elevation,  its  power  to 
awaken  a new  devoti^rU#  truth.  In  truth  and  social  service  our 
public  education  rises  to  the  summit  of  its  power. 

What  then  is  the  character  of  religion,  in  this  age  of  sectarian- 
ism, which  may  call  for  special  consideration? 

Religion  is  not  only  a permanent  human  fact,  but  certain  of 
its  aspects  and  elements  can  be  distinguished  as  likewise  abiding 
through  historic  change.  Consider  the  aspects  of  doctrine,  of 
ritual,  of  institutional  organization,  and  of  ethical  spirit,  not  to 
mention  others  at  this  time.  The  student  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory knows  how  indissolubly  these  are  bound  together;  but  he 
knows  also  that  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  now  one 
and  now  another  has  held  the  dominant  place.  Such  shifting  from 
age  to  age  of  the  center  of  gravity  of  religion,  is  of  the  deepest 
significance  in  the  history  of  the  higher  life  of  mankind. 

In  the  religious  thought  of  these  present  times  we  see  a turn- 
ing away  from  the  doctrinal  and  the  ecclesiastical  elements  that 
laid  a strong  hold  on  the  minds  of  men  in  other  days.  Within  the 
church,  the  interest  in  these  things  is  languid  as  compared  with 
that  of  an  earlier  age.  And  we  cannot  forget  that  a great  part  of 
the  religious  aspiration  and  emotion  of  our  day  arises  outside  of 
the  church.  It  will  not  be  contained  in  the  old  dogmatic  and  insti- 
tutional forms.  It  has  not  made  new  forms  for  itself;  and,  in 
truth,  it  does  not  much  care  to  make  new  forms.  Yet  that  is  not 
to  deny  to  it  altogether  the  religious  character.  It  is  an  overflow 
religion.  For  the  most  part  it  may  be  recognized  as  an  overflow 
of  Christianity. 

Now,  if  there  are  no  institutional  forms  and  no  systematic 
theology  that  have  succeeded  in  gathering  up  and  unifying  this 
overflow  of  religion,  it  does,  in  fact,  find  some  internal  unification, 


which  makes  of  it  one  tendency  and  not  many  unrelated  tenden- 
cies. And  that  unifying  principle  is  humanitarian  and  ethical. 

Even  in  the  church,  and  particularly  in  the  Protestant  church, 
it  would  seem  that  the  turning  away  from  those  earlier  centers  of 
religious  conviction,  the  system  of  doctrine  and  ecclesiastical 
polity,  were  to  work  out  as  a definite  turning  to  a center  of  moral 
conviction.  But  not  moral  as  touching  mere  practice  according  to 
customary  standards.  It  is  rather  the  moral  as  essential  right- 
eousness with  which  we  were  here  concerned.  And  again,  not 
righteousness  as  a term  in  a system  of  theology,  but  righteousness 
as  apprehended  by  the  large  human  sense  which  values  the  right 
above  the  wrong,  and  that  overwhelmingly. 

Already  the  signs  of  such  new  centering  of  religion  clearly 
appear.  For  many  in  this  present  age,  religion  is  reached  by  way 
of  the  moral  sense,  rather  than  morals  by  the  way  of  religion.  It 
is  not  that  the  historic  authoritv,  the  miracles,  the  incense  of  re- 
ligion bring  men  to  religious  convictions,  which  thereafter  are  the 
ground  of  all  of  their  moral  convictions ; but  it  is  rather  that 
through  the  moral  sense,  through  hunger  after  righteousness,  they 
find  a moral  universe  in  which  the  all-righteous  God  is  their 
Father. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  new  centering  of  the  religious 
life  is  the  ultimate  term  of  our  religious  development,  any  more 
than  those  earlier  centerings  have  been.  It  has  its  dangers  and 
inadequacies  as  they  had.  Other  centers,  perhaps  those  that  the 
past  has  known,  but  in  new  form  and  heightened  power,  must 
send  forth  a corrective  influence  in  their  turn  when  this  age  has 
past  away.  But  this  age,  I think,  must  work  out  its  religious  ad- 
vance, a great  and  true  advance  from  the  point  at  which  it  began, 
by  realizing  the  full  meaning  of  those  moral  conceptions  which 
have  taken  strong  hold  on  this  age. 

We  have  come  now  to  a point  where  it  will  appear,  that,  for 
the  sake  of  religion  itself — in  order  that  religion  may  do  its 
proper  work  in  this  age — education  must  be  true  to  its  proper 
character  for  this  age.  The  most  vital  meeting  place  for  educa- 
tion and  religion  in  this  age  is  on  the  moral  plane.  Through  its 
new  emphasis  on  moral  conceptions,  education  itself,  secular  edu- 
cation if  you  would  call  it  such,  may  help  religion  to  work  its  way 


through  and  overcome  its  present-day  sectarianism.  Education 
will  be  the  best  ally  of  religion  in  this  age  if  it  holds  true  to  its 
alliance  with  science  and  democracy. 

Observe  how  vitally  the  several  lines  converge.  Democracy 
stands  for  the  brotherhood  of  man.  Religion  bases  that  brother- 
hood on  what  is  ultimately  a more  cohesive  and  organic  concep- 
tion, the  Fatherhood  of  God.  In  this  humanitarian  age,  however, 
it  seems  more  probable  that  the  great  majority  of  men  will  find 
the  Father  through  that  brotherhood  rather  than  find  brotherhood 
through  a prior  knowledge  of  the  Father.  Pure  devotion  to  truth 
is  found  in  both  religion  and  science.  Historically,  the  religious 
sense  for  truth  appears  as  a very  different  thing  from  the  scientific 
sense  for  truth.  They  seem,  indeed,  to  antagonize  and  cancel 
each  other.  Yet  farther  down  they  are  at  one.  And  from  that 
farther  depth,  below  the  roots  of  the  everlasting  hills,  their  unity 
must  arise  into  the  day  of  human  history. 

If  this  is  a true  reading  of  the  signs,  the  same  moral  concep- 
tions are  coming  to  be  the  uppermost  convictions  in  science,  in 
democracy,  and  in  religion.  It  may  not  be  too  much  to  expect  that 
this  unity  shall  someday  come  to  full  realization ; and  may  we  not 
then  find  that  diverse  religions  have  come  to  unity  among  them- 
selves in  this  very  process  of  coming  into  accord  with  democracy 
and  science  on  the  high  ground  of  moral  conviction?  I am  very 
sure  that  this  will  not  be  all ; but  I think  this  may  be  a part  of  the 
way  by  which  religion  and  education  shall  do  their  work  together 
for  this  age,  and  for  the  ages  that  are  yet  to  be. 


